Real Matters Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Real Matters' first quarter 2021 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press the pound key. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host, Ms. Lynn Beauregard, Vice President of Investor Relations. Ma'am, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to RealMatters Financial Results Conference call for the first quarter ended December 31, 2020. With me today are RealMatters Chief Executive Officer Brian Lang and Chief Financial Officer Bill Herman. This morning before market open, we issued a news release announcing our Q1 results for the three months ended December 31st, 2020. The release accompanying slide presentation, as well as the financial statements and NDNA are posted in the investor section of our website at realmatters.com. During the call, we may make certain forward-looking statements which reflect the current expectations of management with respect to our business and the industry in which we operate. However, there are a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause our results to differ materially from our expectations. Please see the slide entitled Cautionary Note regarding forward-looking information in the accompanying slide presentation for more detail. You can also find additional information about these risks in the risk factors section of the company's annual information form for the year ended September 30th, 2020, which is available on CDAR and in the investor section of our website. As a reminder, we refer to non-GAAP measures in our slide presentation, including net revenue, net revenue margins, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA margins. Non-GAAP measures are described in our MDMA for the three months ended December 31st, 2020, where you will also find reconciliations to the nearest IFRS measures. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brian.

Thank you, Lynn. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call. I will kick things off today by discussing some of the highlights of our first quarter. Bill will then take a deeper dive into our segment financials, and I'll wrap up the call with some brief remarks prior to taking questions. Turning to slide three, we delivered solid financial results in the first quarter. Consolidated net revenue increased 24.8% year-over-year to $44 million, and adjusted EBITDA was up 19.7% to $17.4 million. And for the third quarter running, the contribution to net revenue and adjusted EBITDA of our U.S. title segment surpassed that of our U.S. appraisal segment. The U.S. mortgage origination market remained robust in the first quarter as low interest rates continue to provide a tailwind to market growth. These market dynamics provide a healthy backdrop for our growth, and we realized solid year-over-year market share gains in U.S. appraisal and even stronger gains in our U.S. title segments. U.S. appraisal segment revenues increased 3.2% year-over-year to $69.6 million, principally driven by market share gains and new client additions, which together drove higher origination revenues. The increase in origination revenues was offset in part by a 37.1% decline in other revenues, which represent home equity and default transactions. Origination-only revenues were up 9.2% year over year relative to what we estimate was a flat addressable market for appraisals, which takes into account the impact of VA and waivers. In the quarter, we launched one new Tier 2 lender in two channels in U.S. appraisal. We also continue to rank at the top of lender scorecards, which drove market share gains in the main origination channel year over year. In fact, in the first quarter, we marked our third straight year as the top performer with one of our tier one clients. Operational excellence continues to be our principal focus as we drive toward achieving our fiscal 2025 objectives of doubling our U.S. appraisal purchase and refinance market share at the midpoint of the range. In our U.S. title segment, first quarter revenues rose 39% year over year. Growth in our centralized title operations continued to significantly outpace the market, with revenues increasing nearly 93% compared to an estimated 60% increase in refinance market volumes. The significant increase in centralized title revenues was partially offset by a $4.1 million decline in diversified title revenues and a $2.1 million decline in other title revenues representing home equity and real estate-owned transactions. With new client launches in our centralized title business on the horizon, We've shifted resources away from our diversified title operations with a view of supporting our long-term growth strategy in the origination channel. In the quarter, we went live with two new clients, including a Tier 2 lender, and our sales pipeline continues to be strong. As we indicated during our last quarterly call, we are actively engaged in a sales process with the majority of the Tier 1s on title today, and we remain confident that these engagements will result in our first Tier 1 lender launch. In our Canadian segment, first quarter revenues were up 40.7% year over year, and adjusted EBITDA increased to $1.2 million from $0.7 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2020. Higher appraisal volumes from increasing market share with certain Canadian clients and a stronger mortgage origination market in Canada were partially offset by modestly lower revenues from insurance inspection services due to COVID-19. Canadian mortgage market continues to be remarkably resilient. With that, I'll hand it over to Bill. Bill?